The barrage of the artilleries made me nearly numb. I saw our Zeppelins burning and crashing down on our own trenches. Hundreds of British Mk 1 tanks crawled like a wall of steel in our direction. The British infantry stormed against our trenches and forts without any pause. 17Arras1.jpg (182.57 KiB) Viewed 6180 timesįor more than two weeks in any minute of the battle I thought I would die or even worser cutted to pieces. Who will first destroy or successfully suppress the enemy artillery (yellow / blue) may get the crucial advantage. The British troops are outnumbering the Germans with infantry and tanks. Our western armies even were in the danger to be cut off and encircled and we had to retreat. But then at the Marne River strong French armies attacked our right wing and stopped us. We even captured Reims and there were only some 60 km missing to reach Paris. First we attacked France from the north and stroke deep in the enemy’s country. You know what I think about a war with the British Empire.Īnd our plan failed. And that led automatically to a war with England that was protecting Belgium. The only danger was that we had to occupy the neutral Belgium to bypass the strong French defense positions. After we have won in the west we can send all our troops to support the Austrians against Russia and Serbia. By quickly defeating Paris we will avoid the war on two fronts. That was Generalfeldmarschall von Moltke’s foolhardy plan. My company was indeed the first that reached the city borders of Antwerp and together with our infantry we captured the city quickly. We captured the Belgian city Liege with our superior artillery and went quickly to Antwerp and Brussels. I am really in great worries about our campaign. A letter from the western front, September 27.
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